Mechanisms underlying transitions in behavior on ecological and evolutionary timescales
It is a broad goal of behavioral ecology to understand how transitions between behaviors are achieved. Behavior is ultimately enabled by genes. Yet, there is remarkable redundancy in the genes associated with some behaviors; it is even possible to predict the genes that have been co-opted to support complex behaviors. Despite this, these same behaviors vary in their short-term flexibility and long-term evolvability across species. Thus, it is unclear how flexibility and stability of behavior can be reconciled.
With Dr. Allen Moore and collaborators at the University of Georgia, we are currently investigating genetic mechanisms that influence the expression and evolution of parental care. We recently demonstrated that inotocin, the insect homolog of the oxytocin/vasopressin system in vertebrates, is associated with variation in male, but not female, parental care. This may indicate a broad social, and potentially sex-specific, role of this gene prior to gene duplication. A major goal of my future work is to unite ecological field research with mechanistic analyses to explore the mechanisms that enable variation in parental care behavior across timescales.
Pictured above is a female Nicrophorus orbicollis burying beetle on a deceased ovenbird at Mountain Lake Biological Station. Burying beetles show some amazing parental care! They depend on small dead vertebrate to breed, and when they find a carcass (like this ovenbird), they will remove the feathers, bury the carcass, and then raise their offspring. They even will regurgitate a "soup" to their begging larvae!
Photo credit: Caleb Scott-Joseph, at Mountain Lake Biological Station.
With Dr. Allen Moore and collaborators at the University of Georgia, we are currently investigating genetic mechanisms that influence the expression and evolution of parental care. We recently demonstrated that inotocin, the insect homolog of the oxytocin/vasopressin system in vertebrates, is associated with variation in male, but not female, parental care. This may indicate a broad social, and potentially sex-specific, role of this gene prior to gene duplication. A major goal of my future work is to unite ecological field research with mechanistic analyses to explore the mechanisms that enable variation in parental care behavior across timescales.
Pictured above is a female Nicrophorus orbicollis burying beetle on a deceased ovenbird at Mountain Lake Biological Station. Burying beetles show some amazing parental care! They depend on small dead vertebrate to breed, and when they find a carcass (like this ovenbird), they will remove the feathers, bury the carcass, and then raise their offspring. They even will regurgitate a "soup" to their begging larvae!
Photo credit: Caleb Scott-Joseph, at Mountain Lake Biological Station.